John B. Bellinger III

In February 2001, Bellinger was appointed as Senior Associate Counsel to the President and Legal Adviser to the National Security Council at the White House, where he served as the principal lawyer for National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and the NSC staff. He was in the White House Situation Room on 9/11 and later was the primary lawyer for the White House in dealing with the 9/11 Commission. He was one of the drafters of the legislation that created the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.[4]

At the White House, Bellinger was considered a moderate[5] and often clashed[6] with more conservative lawyers in the administration over international law and the Administration's detention policies, especially over the treatment of detainees.[7] After 9/11, Bellinger,[8] and Rice[9] were excluded by other officials in the administration from the preparation of President Bush's order establishing military commissions.[10]

Bellinger managed the Senate confirmation process for Condoleezza Rice as Secretary of State and co-directed her State Department transition team. He was nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate as the Legal Adviser of the State Department in April 2005. He continued to serve as a member of Rice's "inner circle".[11]

As Legal Adviser, Bellinger was the principal adviser on all domestic and international law matters to the Department of State, the Foreign Service, and the diplomatic and consular posts abroad. He was also the principal adviser on legal matters relating to the conduct of foreign relations to other agencies and, through the Secretary of State, to the President and the National Security Council.[4]

Bellinger was part of a group of Bush administration officials who advocated for minimum standards of treatment for detainees, protections for detainees prosecuted by military commissions,[12] and the closure of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay.[13] He helped persuade the White House to support the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 (the McCain Amendment) and to close the secret CIA black sites in 2006.[14] After the Supreme Court held in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld that Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions applied to the U.S. conflict with Al-Qaeda, Bellinger wrote a memo to the Department of Justice stating that the CIA interrogation program was not consistent with the Geneva Conventions.[15] At the same time, Bellinger was also called upon to defend the Bush administration's counterterrorism policies to skeptical international audiences, serving as the administration's "chief flak catcher abroad".[16] He gave numerous speeches[17] and interviews explaining the U.S. legal approach to terrorism.[18] Rice called Bellinger "indefatigable" in trying to address the concerns of U.S. allies.[19]

In 2006, Bellinger headed the U.S. delegation that negotiated the Third Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions that allowed the humanitarian aid societies of Israel and the Palestinian territories to join the International Red Cross/Red Crescent Federation.[20]

Bellinger has been credited with leading the Bush administration's shift in approach towards the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the administration's second term after President Bush agreed to the UN referral of the genocide in Darfur to the ICC in March 2005.[21] In a series of speeches,[22] Bellinger said the United States was prepared to assist the Court's investigation in Sudan even if it did not intend to join the Rome Statute.[23] He has urged Congress to amend the American Servicemembers Protection Act to allow the United States to provide more support to the Court in certain war crimes investigations.[24]

In 2008, Bellinger represented the United States before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in a case filed by Mexico after the Supreme Court in Medellin v Texas invalidated President Bush's February 2005 order directing courts in Texas and other states to comply with the ICJ's 2004 order in Case Concerning Avena and Other Mexican Nationals that the United States review the convictions and death sentences of a group of Mexican nationals who had not been notified of their right to consular access under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. He later testified before Congress in support of legislation that would allow federal courts to review the death sentences of foreign nationals who had not been notified of their rights to consular access.[25]

During his term as Legal Adviser Bellinger initiated a bi-annual dialogue on international law between the State Department Legal Adviser and his/her EU foreign ministry counterparts which continued after his tenure.[26]

Bellinger's term as Legal Adviser ended on January 20, 2009.[27] The then-Principal Deputy Legal Adviser, Joan Donoghue, served in an acting capacity until the Obama Administration's nominee, Harold Koh, was confirmed as Legal Adviser by the U.S. Senate in March 2009.